Make Acosta explain wrist-slap deal given to sexual predator
Life has been comfortable for R. Alexander Acosta in the 11 years since he cut an outrageous plea deal for a billionaire sex trafficker. The new Congress should make Acosta’s life less comfortable.
In 2007, as U.S. attorney for South Florida, Acosta allowed billionaire money manager Jeffrey Epstein to serve 18 months in the Palm Beach County Jail and register as a sex offender rather than face a potential life sentence in federal prison for exploiting underage girls at his mansion in Palm Beach. At the urging of Epstein’s lawyers, Acosta also kept the deal secret from the victims, an action that might have violated federal law.
Acosta went from the Justice Department to Florida International University, as dean of the law school. In March 2017, the Senate confirmed him as President Trump’s secretary of labor.
All along, Acosta has evaded, ducked or stonewalled questions about the ludicrously light sentence he gave Epstein, who’s accused of molesting hundreds of young girls. During his confirmation hearing, Acosta said the deal reflected a “broadly held” consensus among the office’s prosecutors. But Acosta refused an interview with the Miami Herald for its recent superb package of stories about the Epstein case.
Perhaps that’s because Acosta’s decision remains inexplicable. So does his effort to conceal all details.
As the Herald reported, Acosta traveled from Miami to West Palm Beach to meet with Jay Lefkowitz, one of Epstein’s lawyers and a former colleague at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. Why would the region’s top prosecutor leave his office for such a meeting? The only plausible answer is that Acosta wanted to keep it quiet.
In September 2007, Epstein signed the deal under which he avoided indictment on a range of federal charges. Nine months later in state court, he pleaded guilty to two counts of soliciting prostitution. This minor admission helped Epstein by making his underage victims somehow complicit, even though his team of predators profiled and recruited them.
It’s impossible to look at the Herald’s photos of these underage girls — some of them likely still in junior high school, some still wearing braces on their teeth — and believe they are prostitutes. Let us be unequivocal. They were NOT prostitutes.
Then came the secrecy. In a November 2007 letter to Acosta, Lefkowitz wrote, “We don't understand the basis for your office's belief that it is appropriate for any letter to be sent to (the victims) at this stage — before Mr. Epstein has either entered a plea or been sentenced. We respectfully disagree with your view that you are required to notify the alleged victims pursuant to the Justice for All Act of 2004.”
In addition, Lefkowitz disputed the idea that the victims needed to be heard at Epstein’s sentencing. Allowing it would “have the effect of creating a media frenzy that will surely impact the sentence Mr. Epstein received — precisely what your office promised to avoid.”
Well, yes. There would have been a “media frenzy” – deservedly so.
Acosta made this deal to benefit Epstein, not the public.
In addition to the many civil lawsuits against Epstein, his victims have fought in court to reveal details of the deal and be heard. One motion includes this email from Lefkowitz to the U.S. attorney’s office when the deal was signed: “Please do whatever you can to keep this from becoming public.”
Enough has come out to make Acosta’s defense of the deal sound laughable. Many details and records, however, remain sealed.
In 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Marra granted Epstein’s request to keep 15,000 pages of documents from the public. “The court finds that Epstein has shown good cause to prevent potential dissemination of the correspondence between the government and (Epstein and his lawyers) for the purposes of generating publicity.”
Notably, the deal gave federal immunity not just to Epstein and his recruiters, but also to “any (unnamed) potential co-conspirators.” News reports link Epstein to, among others, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and Donald Trump. In 2002, the sitting president said of Epstein, “He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
We do not believe Acosta should resign as labor secretary. We do believe, however, that Congress should demand the accounting that Acosta has resisted.
Ideally, that would have happened at the confirmation hearing. You would think that opposition to exploitation of underage girls would be a bipartisan issue. Instead, Acosta got a pass.
So when Democrats take control of the House in January, they can investigate the Epstein deal under their government oversight role.
Whatever pain an investigation might bring Acosta is mild compared to the pain inflicted on so many girls by the man he protected.